One of the more difficult operations in the commercial laundering of dress shirts and other such garments is the pressing and preserving of the garment's collar. Typically, these collars are pressed by a pressing machine after washing and prior to pressing of the remaining portions of the garment. Various such pressing machines have been proposed over the years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,420, issued Aug. 26, 1975 to A. L. Revuelta, discloses a collar ironing machine having a pair of heated dies and a pair of flexible bands which are used to press a garment collar flat against the dies. One of the bands wraps over the dies with the other band being used to press the garment collar against the first band and the dies. The dies are secured onto respective levers which pivot to move the dies away from each other to thereby tautly press the collar between the two bands.
Another technique for pressing garment collars through the simultaneous application of pressure and heat is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,228,466, issued Jun. 5, 1917 to H. P. Mohn. This patent discloses a collar press which utilizes a shaper that is placed into the collar and an outer compression band that is placed around the outer surface of the collar. The compression band has two ends that are drawn together to press the outer fold of the collar against the shaper and the inner fold of the collar against a circular heated core member. Tightening of the band is accomplished using a foot pedal that is linked to the ends of the band by a chain that extends over sheaves that are journaled on a shaft. Downward movement of the foot pedal pulls the chains downward, thereby tightening the band about the collar.
U.S. Pat. No. 952,674 issued Mar. 22, 1910 to G. F. Kriesel discloses an apparatus which burnishes a collar through the use of a feed roller, burnishing iron, and shaper member. The collar is placed over the shaper such that the top fold of the collar contacts the burnishing iron. The feed roller is driven by a motor through a pulley system and operates to press and feed the collar against the shaper while the top fold of the collar is pulled along the burnishing iron.
Yet another technique for pressing garment collars is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,685 issued Feb. 26, 1918 to G. B. Ehrmann. This patent discloses a collar pressing apparatus which uses a concave support bed and complementary pressing member to press a wing-collar. Each end of the wing-collar is inserted onto the concave surface of the bed, after which the cooperating top pressing member is brought down to press the wing-collar. The concavity of the bed surface helps achieve the desired form and curve of the wing-collar.
Yet a further example of a machine for pressing garment collars is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,980,845, issued Nov. 13, 1934 to W. J. Beattie. This patent discloses a collar pressing machine having a vertically oriented, heated, hollow cone to support the collar while it is being ironed. The cone has a frusto-conical shape and is oriented vertically such that the cone taper is downwardly divergent. This permits a dress shirt or other collared garment to be placed over the upper, convergent end of the cone and then pulled downwardly toward the larger end of the cone until reaching a point at which a snug fit of the collar is obtained. The collar pressing machine includes an ironing tool that swings around the circular circumference of the cone to permit the collar to be pressed against the heated cone surface. One disadvantage of this collar pressing machine is that it can significantly slow the collar pressing process since the ironing tool is typically detached to permit insertion and removal of each shirt and, once re-attached, may need to be adjusted in length depending upon the vertical location of the collar on the cone. Also, the shirt collar must be positioned angularly on the cone such that the collar button fits within a vertical grove out of the way of the ironing tool. These steps can add time and difficulty to the processing of collars and can therefore slow down the throughput of a commercial laundry operation. Consequently, this type of collar pressing machine has not become widely adopted.
It is common practice within the laundering industry to press dress shirts and similar collared garments while they are still damp from the laundering process. While this damp condition is of benefit in the pressing operation, the garments must preferably be further dried prior to boxing them or placing them on hangers. Often, this drying step is accomplished using a hollow cone such as described in the above-noted Beattie patent, but without the ironing tool. The collar is buttoned and the garment pulled down over the upper, convergent end of the cone until there is a snug fit of the collar on the surface of the cone. The cone is heated using an internal lamp and this heat transfers to the garment collar, evaporating the remaining moisture contained in the collar. These drying cone arrangements rely on the intrinsic elasticity in the collar and stitching for the pressure exerted between the cone and collar and, as a result, do not provide sufficient pressure on the collar to provide a good, sharp finished form. These drying cones also can be undesirably cumbersome for loading and unloading of the garment since it must be pulled down with force onto the cone to achieve a snug fit of the collar and then must be pulled back up with suitable force to remove the collar.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a collar forming apparatus that is capable of concurrently applying adequate pressure and heat to garment collars to provide a desirable finish to the collars and that is capable of rapid garment transfer, thereby satisfying commercial quality and throughput requirements.